Oscars night comes at the end of a five-month marathon of fasting and training and dressing up as Dream Date Barbie (or Ken) again and again, each event bringing the stars a bit closer to summiting the Everest that is awards season. “The end is in sight,” said Elizabeth Saltzman, a celebrity stylist best known for her adventurous work with Saoirse Ronan, in an interview ahead of the show. “You’ve climbed the mountain and you can see the peak.”
First, though, there is the Death Zone (or, as E! calls it, the Glambot). A treacherous traverse in the days of Joan Rivers spilling out her meanie opinions, the red carpet has been unexpectedly transformed lately — vaguely in tandem with the entertainment industry itself — into a surprisingly diverse and welcoming place.
The actor Billy Porter in a flowing Christian Siriano ensemble.CreditJosh Haner/The New York Times
In the internet era, Ms. Saltzman said, everyone may be a critic. Yet an overdue tonal shift has taken hold at the Oscars, one that dials down the negative voices, possibly in recognition of adjustments that took decades to achieve. “Things have changed with the #MeToo moment,” said Karla Welch, another seasoned Hollywood stylist. “There’s a lot more freedom, a lot more politics in the styling. It’s not only about the money or the glamour of the dress.”
It is about the “Pose” star Billy Porter flouting gender binaries by wearing a Christian Siriano tuxedo dress. It is about Melissa McCarthy offering a visual rebuke to any body-shamers in a chic black and white pantsuit with a cape. It is about the “Roma” star Yalitza Aparicio demonstrating with her presence, in an elegant one-shoulder dress, the shifting perceptions in Mexico about the country’s large indigenous population, difficult to imagine even five years ago as was her appearance was on the cover of Vogue Mexico. (Ms. Aparicio, it is worth remembering, once applied for a job at a clothing store in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, her hometown, and was turned away because of the color of her skin.) It is about Awkwafina, the Queens-born actor and rapper, in a metallic Dsquared2 pantsuit that was a long way from the B-girl look she affected for a music video about powerful women.
It is about Spike Lee wearing a purple suit from the British tailor Ozwald Boateng, which he topped off with a custom motorcycle cap inspired by one he spotted in Paris on the architect Peter Marino and accessorized with a diamond, gold and fire opal necklace inspired by Prince’s love symbol, made by the Neapolitan jeweler Amedeo Scognamiglio.
“A man in a high-jewelry necklace is a first,” said an astonished Mr. Scognamiglio. “Plus, he commissioned it and paid for it, which is the distinction and elegance of Spike Lee,” the jeweler added, referring to the complex bargaining game celebrities play with those who supply their clothes.
“Spike Lee just walked in and he looks cold!” the actress Amandla Stenberg told a red carpet reporter. “He looks dope.”
An Oscars where people look cold and dope is a revitalized Oscars. Never mind that this change has occurred at a time when the awards show is suffering diminished ratings and a general loss of cultural traction. There remains much to celebrate not only in the ethereal vision of Laura Harrier, the “BlacKkKlansman” actress, in a Louis Vuitton beaded silk dress by Nicolas Ghesquière, but in the fact that a Hollywood star is at pains to note that every element of her outfit had been sustainably sourced.
It’s not likely that the same could be said of the metallic confection Wes Gordon of Carolina Herrera designed for Glenn Close to wear if — after seven nominations — she finally managed to clinch an Oscar. A dress that conjured something Stan Lee might have come up with, if only Marvel had ever devised a septuagenarian woman superhero, it even had a train and a cape.
“It’s got four million beads,” Ms. Close said of a dress fully in line with traditional maximalist Hollywood dressing. “And it weighs 42 pounds.”
